„We have clubs in 9 libraries,and are hoping to start a new one in January.The clubs are run almost entirely by volunteers(apart from me!)sometimes with assistance from staff but mostly self reliant.[…] Many of these are students of various subjects with some from education, child development or related subjects, while others are local people wishing to contribute to their community.

The clubs run for about 2 hours a night usually once a week(though 3 of the libraries have 2 clubs per week). The clubs are aimed at children in key stage 2 aged between 7 and 11 years old, but we do sometimes get children who are slightly younger or older then these ages.

A lot of the children who live in Westminster have children whose parents are recent immigrants and perhaps do not have English as a first language, so the clubs offer much needed assistance and a safe, quiet space where they can concentrate on their work without distraction and receive help from knowledgable volunteeers with books and computers within easy reach.

Some of the clubs are more popular than others depending on the location, the average attendance is about 7 children per club, though some, like Paddington regularly get up to 20 children attending.

All volunteers are interviewed and given instruction about what the role involves and are checked by the Criminal Records Bureau. […] A lot of the volunteers are reliable and turn up week after week and are very good at helping the children. Some stay for a term but others can stay for much longer depending on their situation.I think most of the volunteers enjoy the experience and may find it useful later when looking for jobs or trying to enroll on education courses. Some of the volunteers even manage to arrange for time off from their regular jobs to volunteer with us.

I quite regularly provide references for the volunteers for jobs or courses. I think the scheme is good for the libraries, increasing use and issues and strengthening our contacts with the local community. It also obviously benefits the children who we help, as they get much needed one to one attention, where any problems in their work can be explained to them individually. It is also of benefit to the volunteers.“